Fighting the businessmen who erode the wetlands
“This water cannot be for sale”
While many reports expose how multinationals have acquired natural wealth cheaply, polluted communities, and exploited workers, the role of powerful African political elites in enabling these practices has received far less attention. The Gambia's chapter of ZAM’s new transnational investigation into Africa’s Sell-Outs documents the selling off of crucial wetlands to well-connected businessmen.
The Tanbi Wetlands in The Gambia are vital for protecting both a thriving oyster trade and the flood-prone capital, Banjul. However, they have been severely threatened by unchecked industrial development led by politically connected business interests. Under the authoritarian rule of former president Yahya Jammeh, much of this construction proceeded with little resistance. The transition to democracy in 2017, however, opened the door for civic action. Following devastating floods in 2022, a determined protest movement has emerged and begun securing key victories.
In Saro, an industrial zone on the outskirts of the Gambian capital, Banjul, a family sits outside their gateless home beside a heap of oyster shells—harvested from the nearby mangroves of the Tanbi Wetlands. “This water cannot be for sale,” insists a woman who appears to be in her early forties, responding to a question about the industrial developments encroaching on the area. “As you can see,” she continues, “this is how I earn a living and support my family. We no longer find as many oysters because of all the activity in the wetlands. This construction has seriously affected my income.” As we speak, her daughters haggle over prices with a customer.
A devastating flood
Vital wetlands in The Gambia—which not only provide a livelihood for oyster sellers but also protect the capital from flooding (1)—are under threat from unscrupulous developers. Through an opaque process, these developers have secured permits to build on the land, despite its designation as a UN Ramsar Wetland (2) and additional legal protections.
But since a flood in 2022—partly caused by the erosion of the wetlands in a broader context of climate change—devastated large areas of Banjul and left many residents homeless, citizens have banded together. Their unyielding environmental movement, Arr Banjul, which stands for “Preserving Banjul,” has confronted illegality and taken on well-connected businesspeople as well as corrupt state officials. It has also achieved some successes, including securing moratoria on building in several areas.
Well-known businessmen acquired large portions of the area
The Tanbi Wetland spans 6,034 hectares surrounding Banjul. Although the government designated the Tanbi Wetland Complex a national park in 2008 and recognised it as a Ramsar-protected site, it has shown little commitment to its actual preservation. According to Minister of Environment Rohey John Manjang—who made the statement at a December 2022 press conference —the majority of damaging industrial building permits were issued during the regime of autocratic president Yahya Jammeh, who ruled The Gambia from 1996 to 2017. His tenure was marked by widespread human rights abuses, including enforced disappearances, unlawful killings, and arbitrary arrests.
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Lands appears to have continued issuing building permits even after Jammeh’s departure.
According to media reports, in the first two years after Yammeh’s departure into voluntary exile in 2017, well-known businessmen such as oil tycoon Hamidou Jah, Senegalese constructor Hadim Gai, and Mauritian Nessim Ahmed El Mealy Ould Menan acquired large portions of the area, building, among other developments, a petrol station, a flour factory, and a dry port terminal respectively. Even the Gambian Ports Authority was allowed to operate a dry port by renting land from Hadim Gai—all without the Ministry of Lands de-reserving or de-gazetting the land in question(3), as legally required. Moreover, according to a Task Force of the Lands Ministry instituted in 2024, many parts of the Wetlands were also allocated without an Environmental Impact Assessment, in violation of the National Environmental Management Act.
An initial victory
In the post-dictatorship era, media reports began to highlight the plight of The Gambia’s coastal and wetland communities, which were increasingly threatened by rising sea levels, amplifying citizens’ calls for government intervention to protect these vulnerable areas. Following the devastating floods in the capital, Banjul, in July 2022, a youth-led protest movement emerged. Known as Arr Banjul—Preserve Banjul—it demanded the complete de-industrialization of the Tanbi Wetland. A protest march planned for August of that year was subsequently banned by Gambian police, who cited the absence of a protest permit request and raised concerns about “security implications (...) especially during this difficult period when residents of the city are recovering from the recent flash floods.”
When around 20 young activists proceeded despite warnings, security forces—including riot police—dispersed the group and arrested team leader Ismael Mbugouma Jeng, evoking memories of the Jammeh era. “Our community just experienced a serious and devastating event, and the security forces of The Gambia should understand that these people deserve a chance. But taking us away reminded me of Jammeh because it was the same thing,” protestor Amadou Wurry Jallow told ZAM in an interview. Nevertheless, the movement achieved its first victory in December 2022: a debate in the National Assembly, the Minister of Environment’s announcement of the withdrawal of a former executive order by President Jammeh that allowed the Banjul City Council to allocate or sell lands, and a moratorium on construction in the Banjul Wetlands area.
"They placed that moratorium as a result of the protests”
Jallow explains that he was surprised at the movement’s success after the first repression. “Our initial plan was to sue the government. We contacted (the UN office of the Ramsar Convention) Ramsar, and then they contacted the government. Then the government started trying to find out exactly (what we were raising) because we had not been allowing them to exactly find out (for fear that) there would have been the possibility of targeting us.” (But) then “they placed that moratorium as a result of the protest.”
The connected few
The process by which businesses were allocated Ramsar land in The Gambia has been the subject of considerable speculation. While few concrete facts have emerged, it is clear that the principal businessmen involved are high-profile and well-connected. Hamidou Jah, owner of multiple petrol stations nationwide, has recently expanded into the cement industry. In 2021, President Adama Barrow awarded him the title of ‘Top Oil Marketing Taxpayer.’ Ahmed El Mealy Ould Menan, a Mauritanian national, founded the Nessim Trading Company, which began operations in The Gambia in 2018. In addition to his flour factory located on the Wetlands, El Mealy Ould Menan established Nessim Fishing and Fish Processing Company, which has faced criticism for prioritizing foreign fishing trawlers over local fishing communities in the coastal area of Sanyang. Nonetheless, he maintains a record of tax compliance; the Gambia Revenue Authority named him the “Most Compliant Manufacturer” in 2023. Senegalese dry port operator Hadim Gai has been at the center of significant controversy. Beyond operating the SMG terminal on the Wetlands, his company, Gai Construction, was awarded the Banjul Rehabilitation contract in 2019—without an open tender process. This massive US$35.5 million project, intended to overhaul Banjul’s drainage, road, and sewage systems, has been described in Parliament as a source of “dissatisfaction” and “complaints”.
It took an additional two years of citizen complaints and parliamentary debate before the government implemented more decisive measures. In May 2024, authorities established a dedicated task force to address construction activities in the Banjul-adjacent Kamalo area—divided into Kamalo Proper and Kamalo Extension—following numerous complaints. The government also announced a halt to all building within Kamalo.
Eight months later, in January 2025, the task force reported that the allocations in the area had indeed not followed due process and had violated environmental laws. The government subsequently revoked all 28 land allocations at Kamalo Extension, and 12 out of the 40 plots at Kamalo Proper were forfeited to the state. The revocations included furniture and foam factories, as well as a factory owned by businessman and TV mogul Haji Jawara, who is also The Gambia’s honorary consul in Angola.
To date, no individuals have been held accountable for the irregular land allocations. A file concerning the land allocations in Kamalo is reported to have gone missing. According to the Lands Minister, speaking at the launch of the Kamalo report in January 2025, “staff of the ministry [were] adversely mentioned by the report, and consequently the taskforce recommendation against them [was adopted],” yet he did not clarify what the recommendation entailed or whether any personnel were suspended or dismissed. Notably, the report itself has not been made public.
Piles of gravel
That the struggle to protect the Wetlands is by no means won is clear when we tread along Bund Road in Banjul, an area cutting through the edge of the wetland. The constant movement of heavy trucks shakes the ground here, filling the air with smoke. Flanked by industrial factories, the area is anything but quiet. The mangroves have been turned into dumping grounds, polluted with plastic bags and oil spills from nearby factories. Amadou Wurry Jallow of Arr Banjul expresses shock at the sight of what appears to be a new development: a piece of land backfilled, with piles of gravel being dumped in the area.
When Modou Lamin Bah, the National Assembly Member for Banjul North, promptly took to social media to denounce the development, he also visited the site in person. He later commented, “Today, as an authority, I took it upon myself to come and see for myself (…) It is very unfortunate that we are destroying the environment we are supposed to protect. I seize this opportunity to call upon all stakeholders, especially the government, to do the needful so that this stops immediately,” he stated on social media.
“The Ministry of Lands is responsible for all this mess”
To environmental activist Ousainu Colley, the continued operation of powerful state contractor Hadim Gai demonstrates that the government is still not serious enough about protecting the Wetlands and the capital. “Gai’s dry port is still operating on the Wetlands. Even if he has a permit and the right papers, this does not make his activities legal because this is a Ramsar protected site.” Colley sees the massive concrete dry port as one of the main causes of the 2022 flood in Banjul. “If the area that should serve as a reservoir has been backfilled with concrete, where do you expect the water to go? The water must find its way. And if the wetland does not have enough space, the water will find its way into people’s homes.”
When asked for comment, Lamin Gassama, Director of the Department of Parks and Wildlife—the authority responsible for managing the wetland—stated: “The Department opposes all developments in Tanbi, as they have proceeded without an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and an Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP), despite the area being a Ramsar Wetland of international importance.” Gassama directed ZAM to “kindly liaise with the Department of Lands and Physical Planning,” adding that “the Ministry of Lands is responsible for all this mess.”
Director Alieu Badgie of the Department of Lands and Physical Planning neither confirmed nor denied awareness of the building on Bund Road. After thanking ZAM for “sharing the information,” he did not respond to further questions.
(1) The threat of floods in The Gambia, in addition to general climate change, is also exacerbated by sand mining, but the Wetlands’ mangroves are seen as especially crucial to the capital’s protection.
(2) The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was enacted by the United Nations in 1975.
(3) As admitted by the ministry at the time of the press conference about the Kamalo report.
See the first instalments in this Transnational Investigation here
Sell Outs | The patrons who make the deals about their countries
Zambia | A corrupt political class
Zimbabwe | All the president’s minerals
Mozambique | Government Captured by Lobbyists
Sell Outs
This introductory story, along with the first and second country episodes published below, constitutes the initial instalment of our transnational Sell-Outs investigations conducted by a ZAM team across Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, the DRC, and the Gambia. The remaining country episodes will be published in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
